Just removed the carb on my mk.3 to find all of the internals are green and crusty (really). Pretty sure it's not supposed to be like that so there's a thorough rodding-out on the cards but thinking ahead slightly, is there a trick to reinstalling the carb without loosening/removing the airbox?

Many thanks in advance!

On my mk2, i first insert the the airbox end of the carb in, and then fek about trying to get the reed block manifold side in, as the airbox connection is more flexible, and you can push/pull against the airbox to aid insertion in to the reed block manifold. Hope this helps

make sure both sides are imaculately clean before you start messing tho as dirt and engine internals are not good bedfellows. Jon

> make sure both sides are imaculately clean before you start messing tho as
> dirt and engine internals are not good bedfellows. Jon

Funny you should say that. I've just been out to do some more work on the bike and the crusty green stuff that I mentioned previously (and assumed was simply surface discolouration due to bike being unused for so long is actually approx. 0.2mm thick and covers ALL internal surfaces of the carb. It's like it's growing freakin' coral or something and I can't believe that the bike ran at all (let alone as cleanly as it did). Bugger wouldn't start off the kicker though

I've managed to clean the jets and mixture screw etc. up beautifully using the Cillit Bang method mentioned elsewhere on there forums (cheers to whoever's tip that was!) but carb cleaner ain't touching the rest I'm not sure how to approach it apart from chucking it in the bin and scouring eBygum.

P.S. Thanks Glyn. I hope I get that far in the forseeable future!

You could maybe use acetone to clean out the coral reef in your carb. I used to run it mixed with the petrol (20ml/11L) To raise the octane by a few points. A positive side effect of this was it cleaned out some of the carbon out of the cylinder and generally just cleaned the rest of the internals. Don't expect flash bang results instantly though, it took roughly 3 tank fulls to have any noticable effect, though i did notice better fuel economy straight off. Whether or not it does anything to the carb is beyond me. Good luck